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Tragedy! Horror! A Key Service is Overloaded!

Update: Hello to everyone visiting from Peter's teasing post re this one. While you are here I hope you'll check out the rest of my site. I have since made another post where I stop freaking out (see front page) since the service is back up. Still, if anyone else is interested in ritual sacrifice (per our cult), just let me know.

I am in shock, though I know I shouldn't be. The folks over at RSS Digest have announced that they are too slammed with users to continue their fantastic service right now. They create javascript RSS feed displays like the ones I've got over on the right sidebar of my blog (Podcasts Downloaded, My Recent Furls re Search, etc).

I'm not surprised, as this is an invaluable service. I can't believe that no one else is offering it for free, though I'm sure this is why. Feedroll will give you a script you can copy and paste to display on your RSS feed on your site, but it is unclear whether you get multiple feed displays for their $15 a month subscription rate. Furthermore, they are probably unwilling to create a display to syndicate a feed you don't own. And I love displaying search results automatically by RSS. That's what makes the sites I work with little hubs of the newest information in their fields. (What Rok over at MarketingStudies.net calls RSS Radars)

I am heartbroken that RSS Digest is down. I sent them ten bucks as a donation to help. If you use their service you should too. This will be simple Web 2.0 function someday and performing this it will be no problem. But for now I can't use it on client's blogs and I am so upset about it!

Obviously this calls into question the business model of so many little Web 2.0 service providers, "tell me what you want, I'll create a javascript to make it happen, you link back to me, and enough people will click on my ads that I'll make a profit." Apparently, that's not always the case.

But just like Haloscan commenting provides a great service for $12 per year, I imagine that RSS Digest could move towards a subscription model. So long as they let me display the feeds of other sites beyond my own, I'd pay $10 a month for their service.